Hammer mills of the radial feed variety conventionally include a hammer mounting rotor, which is supported for rotation within a casing defining material inlet and discharge openings; and a screen device, which is removably mounted within the casing to bound the rotor and to define a screen inlet opening aligned with the casing inlet opening.
When hammer mills of this general type employ a cantilever supported rotor, insertion/removal of the screen is greatly facilitated by forming the casing with a hinged side wall construction of the type disclosed in my prior u.S. Pat. No. 3,389,862, which permits the screen to be inserted in a direction aligned with its rotational axis.
However, cantilever supported rotors have certain structural/performance limitations, and thus it is often necessary to support the rotor by means of a pair of bearings arranged on axially opposite sides of the casing. This in turn necessitates that the casing and screen be formed so as to permit insertion of the screen in a direction extending transversely of the rotor axis. Over the years many proposals have been made for facilitating insertion/removal of the screen devices in a direction extending transversely of the rotor axis; U.S. Pats. Nos. 954,540; 1,759,448; 2,946,523 and 3,893,632 being cited as being representative of mills employing hingedly connected screens or screen supports in an attempt to facilitate insertion/removal of the screen devices. However, these prior attempts are not wholly satisfactory in view of either their complexity of construction and/or in that they do not permit unassisted, single operator insertion/removal of the screen device.